


Yesterday's Dream, Tomorrow's Reality

by Shinocchi



Series: Same Heart; Different Universe [14]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Wonderland, Alternate Universe x Canon Fusion, Character Study, Easter, Exploration, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:37:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6373213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinocchi/pseuds/Shinocchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waking up in a world where all the realities he believed in were twisted into an unrecognizable state wasn't what Seragaki Aoba was expecting when he went to bed, in his normal world, the previous night.</p><p>But what confounded him even further was coming across a white bunny, Noiz, who seemed to have created a completely different sense of reality around him as well, pushing Aoba into a flow he never thought was possible, until he noticed that Noiz was, in fact, more than just a messenger like how he'd told him.</p><p>[Wonderland AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yesterday's Dream, Tomorrow's Reality

**Author's Note:**

> The whole thought process started with the urge to write rabbit!Noiz and while I let the idea marinate in my head (which is obviously a wrong decision) it turned out to be this three-chapter story that's a bit too big than I expected it to be.
> 
> It's also supposed to be written for Easter so I thought maybe I could try writing something out of my comfort zone and here you go, an out-of-the-world, totally-not-my-usual-writing-zone piece of story that I've come to adore the idea of it.
> 
> This story also has direct references of characters from the original Alice of Wonderland, which I'm pretty sure it's easy to spot who's who heh.
> 
> Lastly, thank you for reading; Happy Easter and enjoy! <3

_It was a story from a faraway land; a story that took place from a very, very long time ago. It was a story that many folks read to their children, for it was unreal, meant to be a_ story _and was never meant to be taken seriously._

_But it was a story that needs to be told – a story that would unfold moments of truth that one would never ever thought they needed in their life._

 

* * *

 

 

“Oi.”

The last thing he remembered was going to bed as usual, lights switched off, him turning to his side and closing his eyes, mind filled with overloaded contemplations for his work for the next day until he drifted off to sleep. What he _didn’t_ remember was waking up in a wide field, under a huge apple tree, with a stranger gazing down at him.

“Thought you died.” The stranger wasn’t all that friendly either; his first words had told Aoba so. Speedily sitting up, he glanced around, making sure that this wasn’t any place that he knew before he returned his attention to the man. But before he could say anything, he gaped, wide-eyed, at the… man before him.

He was wearing what seemed like a pair of ornamental suits from a circus group, waist coat skilfully tucked within his coat, top hat crowned on his head and a watch in his palm. But above all, what captivated Aoba the most was the pair of bunny ears poking from the top of his head, a couple of piercings lined along the thin flesh but not enough to hide how soft and fluffy the pair of ears looked in Aoba’s eyes.

“Who are you?” was the first question Aoba threw at the man. All the man did was straighten himself up, staring downwards at Aoba before he spoke,

“Noiz,” he said simply. “C’mon, we don’t have much time.”

Are they going somewhere? Aoba thought. In this land he didn’t even know the name of, all he could do was follow Noiz, the man who seemed to also be a bunny at the same time, as they walked across the field. He was about to ask more questions when his surrounding distracted him – everything he saw was oddly-shaped, none of them matched with his own perception of how ‘normal’ should be. The flowers looked like they could be tiny trees of themselves, buildings he caught sight from far beyond looked as if they were made out of plants. This world was a colourful world, albeit it being a bit too peculiar for Aoba’s liking.

“Hey,” he called out, slightly uncomfortable with the stretched silence between them. “Where are we?”

Noiz didn’t answer immediately; instead, he slowed his pace down, seemingly waiting for Aoba to catch up to him before he looked over his shoulder, his lime-green pair of eyes a bit too trivialising for Aoba to read his thoughts.

“It’s an illusion,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Illusion?”

Noiz nodded. Turning his attention ahead again, he continued.

“Nothing here is real. Everything are made out of what people want.”

Aoba couldn’t say that he understood completely of what Noiz was trying to say. Sure, nothing of here seemed normal, but was deviation something wrong? He had his own answers, but he yearned to seek for more.

“Where are we going?” he asked again, now walking by Noiz’s side.

“The Queen wants to see you,” Noiz said nonchalantly, as if he was merely speaking to himself; as if Aoba was simply a shadow.

“Why?” Aoba asked again.

“We never know of the Queen’s intention for everything he does.”

“’He’?” Again, it was something that wasn’t categorized in Aoba’s existing dictionary of normalcy.

“Yeah, he,” Noiz confirmed.

Shouldn’t it be a King then? Aoba wondered, but he swallowed the question down, realizing that he had more pressing matter to handle instead of questioning something that was so personal.

“Who are you then?” he asked, trying to catch a glimpse of Noiz’s face but all that he could see was the same expression the man had been wearing ever since he first met him.

“I told you, I’m Noiz,” Noiz repeated, sounding just a tad annoyed.

“That’s your name,” Aoba said. “You didn’t tell me who you really are. Like, what is your position? Why are you here?”

That was too many questions, even Aoba felt so. And Noiz’s profound sigh in the next second had confirmed Aoba’s qualms.

“You’re really persistent, aren’t you?” Noiz scowled.

“Isn’t it normal for someone to want to know what’s happening after being forcefully thrown into a world he has completely no idea of? Wouldn’t _you_ be curious?”

“Normal, huh?” Noiz hummed. “There’s nothing to be curious of, this is just a world of illusion. It’s not the real world.”

“But it’s a real world to you,” Aoba interrupted. “I want to know more about everything here, and about you.”

Noiz halted his steps, turning around to look Aoba in the eyes.

“This isn’t your world in the first place,” he said. “All you need to do is to meet the Queen—“

“—and your job would be done,” Aoba interrupted again.

Noiz paused. “Precisely. That’s all.”

That jabbed Aoba hard in the heart.

“I’m only a messenger. I’m not even real,” Noiz said as he started to walk again. “I’m only your imagination.”

“But _now_ , you’re real, and I see no harm in trying to understand more of the person who’s bringing me around this world, at least for now.”

Noiz didn’t say anything. He seemed like he was doing his own thinking so Aoba walked faster, realizing that Noiz was rushing his steps as well.

“Can’t we get along? At least for now?”

He saw a frown appeared in between Noiz’s eyebrows, but he said no word. Noiz seemed like he had difficulties understanding Aoba but that was the least of his concern. Like he said, he could be just a messenger, or simply his imagination, but now, he could indeed feel Noiz’s presence loud and clear; and if he was to reach out to him, he was sure that he could feel his skin, his warmth, against his hand, as if he was a real person of his own.

So there was _no way_ that Noiz was merely his imagination now.

Now – he was a reality.

He knew nothing about this world except for how twisted it seemed to be. He was sure that this was a dream by now – Noiz had told him so, that it was an imagination – but there must be a reason as to why he was thrown into this ‘reality’. And perhaps, he’d be able to find the answer out for himself across the journey he was to spend with Noiz.

 

He witnessed more elusive items along the way. There were humans as tiny as Aoba’s palm and there were also animals as huge as his entire body. Frequently, he’d catch sight of moving buildings, only urging him to walk faster, feeling the lack of comprehension towards everything creating a heftier load on his shoulders. Noiz was silent all the way, his eyes recurrently on his watch and across time, Aoba noticed that he’d spend more time ogling at Noiz’s pair of fluffy ears alongside his round tail poking from the back of his pants when he was to walk just slightly behind him.

He sounded like he couldn’t care less about Aoba, that his sole purpose was to bring Aoba to where he was supposed to bring him and that was about it. Aoba couldn’t blame him, though. He seemed as if he was trapped in this world for the longest time ever and Aoba was perhaps not the first person he’d had to bring to see the Queen. He couldn’t sense any empathy from the man, let alone knowing what he was thinking. But from the way he was acting in such a contemptuous way, he disturbed Aoba ever so slightly when he noticed that nothing probably mattered to him anymore; that he was oh-so fine living in this reality and that he had no intention whatsoever to seek for a reality he yearned for.

Or did he not have the courage to? Was he scared? Or was there something in _this_ reality that had been pulling him back?

There were thousands of questions in Aoba’s head but asking the bunny was useless. He’d never get the answer he wanted, especially not when the bunny seemed like he was looking for his own answer as well.

As they walked in silence and into the woods, Aoba found himself being all the more mystified at Noiz’s bunny features instead. He’d observed all the strangeness around him to know enough to pull himself away from being overwhelmed. But Noiz’s bunny features were familiar to him. He’d been aching to touch those long floppy ears, to feel the softness of furs against his hand, and he wondered what kind of reaction Noiz would let out if he was to touch them for real. He never knew much about rabbits, but he was familiar with some basic rabbit language. Completely driven by the raw impulse of curiosity, he walked faster, approaching Noiz, and pinched the tip of his ear.

Noiz jumped, almost dropping his watch before he turned sharply around, literally _glaring_ at Aoba.

“I’m sorry!” Aoba apologized immediately.

“What are you doing?” Noiz growled.

“It looks so soft, I can’t help it…”

Noiz rubbed on the spot where Aoba had touched him, scowl still on his face then staring at Aoba again.

“It’s nothing impressive,” he said, continued pacing down the small lane in the forest.

“It’s cute,” Aoba complimented. “I wonder if it works the same as how I remember rabbits work.”

He could almost sense that tiny hint of curiosity from Noiz but he wasn’t expecting any upfront response from him anyway.

“You know, rabbits like it when you pat their heads well enough,” Aoba grinned, mood lifted upon realizing that he’d found himself a good enough topic to interact with Noiz. “Do you like it when people pat your head?”

For some reason, Noiz clicked his tongue, giving Aoba the impression as if he’d just aggravated him but that was all he did.

“I find that really cute,” Aoba said as an ending note to their conversation. “Bunnies are very lonely creatures, I heard.”

He didn’t intend to breathe the last of his sentence out and he hitched a breath when he did, suddenly realizing something.

Was this why Noiz wasn’t very vocal with him?

“Shh.”

While he pondered, Noiz stopped all of a sudden, stretching a hand to stop him from walking.

“What’s wrong?” Aoba asked, looking around while Noiz fixed his focus up ahead, as if looking at something Aoba couldn’t see.

“Well, look at what we’ve got here.”

“Hello, Noiz.”

The voices reverberated from above them and when Aoba looked up, he saw two men sitting on the branches of the tree; both of them looked alike, as if they were twins, except for the fact that one was bespectacled and just a tad smaller than the other.

“I’ve got no business with you,” Noiz said, his ears lifting above his head, a clear sign of vigilance.

“We’ve got not business with you too,” the bespectacled man agreed. “But we’re interested with your guest. He doesn’t seem like he’s from here.”

Noiz stepped a step back, as if trying to hide Aoba from view.

“Don’t be so rigid, Noiz,” the other man jumped from the tree, landing right in front of them. “We only want to say hi.”

“He has no business with you,” Noiz snarled, eyes sharp.

“Little rabbit needs to learn how to relax with people,” the man smirked, patting a hand on top of Noiz’s head, causing Noiz to sweep it away with an aggressive motion.

“Hello,” the smaller man had jumped down from the tree as well, walking towards Aoba. “I’m Virus, he’s Trip. Welcome to our world.”

This was the first time Aoba was to speak with anyone but Noiz ever since he arrived in this world. Feeling just a bit edgy, he poked his head out from behind Noiz’s back, lifted a small smile before he said,

“I’m Aoba.”

“Aoba-san, I see,” the man named Virus spelled. “Nice to meet you. Do you have any business in this world?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you,” Noiz answered for Aoba.

“Indeed,” Virus smiled, albeit a hypocritical one. He seemed as if he was suppressing something within him that had Aoba heighten his watchful instinct and before he knew it, he started speaking, totally trying to distract the agitation beneath his chest.

“Both of you stay here, too?”

“We do,” Virus said. “We’ve been here for the longest time.”

So they were something like Noiz too? And were they non-existent like Noiz as well? Were they Aoba’s own imagination as well?

“You look like twins,” Aoba chuckled, lack of anything else to say.

“We aren’t.” They said at the same time.

“Aoba-san, your business here must be very challenging,” Virus said with a smile. “But it seems like it won’t be too much of a trouble for you.”

“What do you mean?” Now this caught Aoba’s attention. He had yet to know what his real business here was; Noiz not being helpful at all. But he had a gut feeling that he’d learn more about it as he walked his way towards his destination – the fact that he’d met these two persons, who appeared to be as unusual as he already expected them to be, a reality of it.

“Everything has two sides to it,” Virus started. “What you see might not be what is true.”

He couldn’t quite understand what Virus was trying to tell him but he decided to gulp his questions down, waiting for Virus to elaborate further.

“For instance, this world, or should I say, this _reality_ you’re in,” Virus continued, exchanging gaze with Trip as the smile on his lips elevated ever so slightly. “It’s up to you to believe what you want. Often, people would fall into the trap of believing what makes them feel good, even though it’s not real.”

Aoba felt as if he was slowly but surely understanding what these two persons were getting to. Not knowing what else to say, he merely nodded when Noiz grasped his wrist and walked away, without a single look back at the two men.

“We wish you luck in your journey, Aoba-san!” He heard Virus greeting him from behind.

“Good luck, Aoba!” Trip followed.

“Don’t listen to them,” Noiz mumbled under his breath as soon as they’d walked far enough from the spontaneous interruption.

“But I agree,” Aoba said. “It’s like them, don’t you think? From the outside, it looks like they’re real twins but they are really different.”

Noiz released his grip on Aoba’s wrist, walking like normal, but Aoba knew that he had his ears on him.

“I could believe that they’re really twins, regardless of what they said, because that’s the _reality_ I see and I don’t want to be proved wrong.”

There were a lot of things that he had yet to know about this world. His reality might not be the same reality as how people in this world looked at it. But deep inside, he believed that there must be a universal, mutual understanding that everyone could relate to, regardless of what world they were in.

And that was what he wanted to seek for – that _one_ truth that combined all the different worlds as one.

“It’s true that people would only believe in things that make them feel better even though they silently know that it’s not the truth. Humans are egoistic creatures, don’t you think? They never like to be proved wrong, and it’s fine that way. Everyone has their way of living anyway. What is light, what is dark, it’s a different concept for different people. At the end of the day, most of us would tend to choose the route that fits our preference because we’d rather live in a beautiful lie than a painful truth.”

“What are you trying to get to?” Noiz disturbed. He’d been listening for long enough and Aoba had been expecting him to interfere. Beaming blazingly, he hurried his step, walking by Noiz’s side just to catch a glimpse of his expression.

“I’m saying that it’s okay to admit that you’re afraid of the truth at times because you’re a living being with emotions. This is part of living and facing it is part of growing up.”

“Are you trying to say that I’ve been escaping from reality all this while?” Noiz asked, tone and eyes cold.

“I wouldn’t know,” Aoba said briefly. “But it seems like it to me. You don’t seem like you’re enjoying this world and that you’re just here simply because you don’t have a choice.”

He could clearly see the way Noiz’s expression changed. It was a fleeting moment but that precise second told Aoba enough of how much his words were affecting Noiz. He wasn’t even sure if whatever he said relate to Noiz at all but his hunch was something he’d like to rely on, for that was everything he had at the moment.

“I—“

Noiz was about to say something when they heard a garish voice from above them, disturbing their interactions. When Aoba looked up, he saw a big shadow falling on them, stepping aside just in time to have the very item fall right in between him and Noiz.

“Woah,” he shrieked out of reflex.

“Tch,” Noiz clicked his tongue and Aoba wasn’t sure if he was bothered by how their conversation was interrupted or if he was annoyed at the new… person who’d just appeared in front of them.

“Noiz-san! You could’ve grabbed onto me!”

The new person looked like another personified animal like Noiz, except that instead of bunny ears and tail, he had a pair of cat ears popping from on top of his head, a long, orange-coloured tail emerging from his back as he rubbed on skin where he’d fell on.

“A-are you okay?” Aoba asked. He’d literally just fell from the sky, the impact didn’t sound all the forgiving either. Aoba wouldn’t even be surprised if he was suffering from a broken bone or such.

“Ah.” The new person seemed to have just noticed Aoba as he quickly stood up, telling Aoba that he was more than fine and rushed towards Aoba to hold his hands in his.

“Hello! Nice to meet you, I’m Clear!” With this distance, Aoba was _sure_ that he was a cat. There was this air of indistinctiveness around him, making Aoba suspect if he didn’t just witness him having a translucent appearance when he blinked.

“H-hi, I’m Aoba. Nice to meet you too,” he said awkwardly, completely blown away by the sudden enthusiasm.

“Noiz-san, is this your friend?” Clear turned around to smile radiantly at Noiz, who had his eyes closed and scratching his head, a palpable exasperated look on his face.

“Ah, I’m sorry!” Clear said. “Did I scare you? Noiz-san told me not to be so noisy but it’s hard to control myself sometimes.”

That’s pretty obvious, Aoba wondered with a bitter smile.

“But I can’t help it, you know? If we don’t enjoy things when it lasts, we’ll regret when it’s gone!”

“H-huh?” The conversation seemed to have taken a completely different flow now as Aoba stared uncomprehendingly at Clear. He was drawn by his pink-coloured eyes, a colour so vibrant it was a direct contrast to Clear’s overall overcast, dimmed appearance. He looked as if he could disappear soon, flowing into one with the wind and having his appearance as svelte as the air. And while he still had his hands on Aoba’s, Aoba could sometimes feel an odd sense of tingling sensation that had cold sweat running down his spine.

Clear’s ears wiggled in excitement, his tail swinging left and forth as he stared ardently at Aoba, his voice similarly excited when he spoke again.

“Everything is temporary in this world. Sooner or later, one would have to choose the path that they want to continue on, which includes if they want to go down the path of eternal loneliness or momentary happiness.”

“What… do you mean?” He’d never expect someone as sprightly as Clear to blurt out something as deep as what he’d just told him.

“I don’t exist, Aoba-san, someone created me. But it’s true that I’m here, right now, talking to you!” he ended with his tail curling up onto Aoba’s waist.

“We are making decisions every second of our life, aren’t we?” he beamed animatedly.

“Ah, we sure are,” Aoba nodded with a smile. “So, what’s your choice, Clear? Eternal loneliness or momentary happiness?”

“I want to be real, Aoba-san. Even if I can’t…” he trailed off. “At the very least, I want to be meaningful to the person I love.”

This world is weird, Aoba immediately concluded. Everything, everyone he’d met in this world was way too uncharacteristic for his understanding. They would appear out of nowhere, like it was the most natural thing to do, talking to him with this solemn tone that sounded as if they were giving him a life lesson and then disappearing into thin air, as if they’d never existed in the first place.

What was the purpose of this dream? What was he expected to achieve at the end of it? What was it trying to tell him?

“That’s a very wise decision,” Aoba’s smile widened. “Nothing matters more than being able to live a meaningful life while you can.”

“Right?” Clear exclaimed. “Even if it’s short, it’ll be worth it.”

“Yeah,” Aoba agreed.

Were these people real? Aoba pondered again while Noiz pulled Clear away from him, causing Clear to cry hysterically before Noiz pointed his chin down the lane, urging Aoba to follow him.

“Noiz…” Aoba called out as they walked. They were still in the forest; nothing seemed to have changed around them and occasionally, Aoba even felt as if they were walking in circles, returning to where they started even after long hours of walk. He didn't want to question Noiz; this world was way out of his league to control anyway. And he only had Noiz to depend on for now.

“What would you choose?”

“Choose what?” Noiz replied fleetingly, his tone as flat as Aoba remembered it to be.

“Eternal loneliness or temporary happiness?”

“Don’t listen to what he said,” Noiz retorted almost immediately.

“But he has a point.”

“I didn’t bring you here to listen to these nonsense, their appearances are not part of the plan.”

“Wait, what?”

Aoba stopped walking. Realizing what he’d just said, Noiz stopped too, back facing Aoba.

“ _You_ were the one who brought me here? Not the Queen?”

Noiz remained silent, which was an answer of itself.

“Why?”

He heard Noiz releasing a breath, then, as he turned around, he spotted a vague hint of wavering emotions in his eyes that had him walk towards him, coming face-to-face with him.

“What do you want from me, Noiz?”

Noiz had the answers to everything, after all. Sure, the acquaintances with the other persons weren’t intentional, but they could’ve been there in response to Noiz’s wish. If this was a world _Noiz_ created – a fictitious world, in this sense – then did Noiz truly want a world like this? A world that was so twisted in reality; a world that showed no sense of melancholy but relentless stagnant, _imaginary_ emotions that was meant to deceive one’s sense of reality?

“Noiz,” Aoba called out again. “Is there anything that I can help you with?”

Noiz closed his eyes, seemingly considering Aoba’s question before he started, now sounded calmer than ever.

“I need answers,” was all he said before he turned his back towards Aoba, walking down the pavement without another word.

Everything that had happened – Noiz’s real intention, Noiz’s world, Noiz’s responses – left Aoba in a more abysmal mess than before. Everything he was deliberately gathering about this world, every truth that he’d found out seemed to be playing a different card now. He didn’t have the trump card; and for all he knew, that very card might be in the hands of the Queen, whom Noiz had wanted him to meet.

He wouldn’t know if this was all purely a trap, but he knew that Noiz was trying to communicate something to him, and before he could find out what that was, all he could do was let this dream continue, until they reached the very end of it.

Until all _realities_ were being exposed.

 


End file.
